


Shelter from the Storm

by orphan_account



Category: Kirby (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-17 15:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nimbus the Kracko finds a Dark Matter named Tycho in the wilderness and brings him home. Set during Kirby 64.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

For a Kracko like Nimbus, storms weren't particularly frightening.  Lightning only energized him, and rain rolled right off him.  The problem, the reason why Nimbus now cast his single, large blue eye up at the sky nervously, was the knapsack strapped to his fluffy back.  He had spent all day gathering food for his family, and if he didn't find shelter soon, the rain would soak through his knapsack and ruin all his effort.

Mumbling worriedly to himself, Nimbus scanned the barren landscape around him for shelter.  An ancient mountain range, its peaks rounded from millennia of other storms, lay in the distance; perhaps Nimbus could find refuge there.  The Kracko started flying towards the mountains, trying to hold a steady course as he was buffeted by the rising winds.  Although not especially athletic, he was still in the early years of adulthood and could fly quickly.  The moss-covered ground passed swiftly beneath him as he dodged leafless, late autumn trees.  Nimbus moved so quickly, he hardly noticed the black blur that he flew over-- until it gave a piercing shout that brought Nimbus to a stop immediately.

" _Hey_!"

Nimbus drew up, nearly falling over backwards in the air, then turned to look back.  His eye would have passed right over the small black lump on the ground a few yards back, had the lump not been haloed by a dull, golden gleam.  Nimbus retraced his path until he was close enough for a good look.

"Dark Matter," he breathed, pulling back again.  The lump had proved to be a sphere surrounded by smaller, petal-like spheres of a metallic gold hue; a large yellow and red eye peered up at Nimbus from the lump's center.

"Kracko!" the Dark Matter returned, the yellow center of its iris gleaming with a mischievous light.  An instant later, though, the expression changed to fear as a sharp crack of thunder sounded.  The little Dark Matter-- it was perhaps a fourth of Nimbus' size-- cowered against a rock protruding from the mossy ground.

"What do you want?" Nimbus asked cautiously.  He knew, of course, what Dark Matter allegedly _always_ wanted: to possess innocent beings and make them do terrible things.  This little one wasn't doing anything threatening though, and Nimbus was tempted to give it the benefit of the doubt.

"I don't wanna get wet!" whined the Dark Matter.  "Is there some place to stay near here?"

_There's probably not a place for Dark Matter to stay anywhere on Pop Star,_ Nimbus thought, but he spoke more kindly than that.  "No, no one lives around here, not for miles anyway.  I'm pretty far from home myself."  Nimbus lifted his eye to look again towards the mountain range, trying to judge whether he had time to reach the potential shelter before the rain started.

The Dark Matter rolled on its side to follow his gaze, then it launched itself into the air and hovered at Nimbus' eye level.  "Where are you going, then?"

"I have to keep my knapsack dry," Nimbus mumbled.  Benefit of the doubt or not, he didn't want a Dark Matter following him around, so he added, "But it won't hurt _you_ to get wet, and if you stay low, you'll be safe from lightning.  You'll be fine right here."

"But I'm scared of storms," the Dark Matter protested.

"There's nothing to be frightened of."  Nimbus edged away from it with another longing look towards the mountains.  "Look, I have to hurry to find a place for my knapsack, or I'll lose all the food I've gathered for my family!  You'll be fine, I promise."  He started for the mountains again only to hear a piteous whimper from behind him.

"I can't come with you?"

"You're too small!  You won't be able to travel fast enough."

The Dark Matter zipped past him, then turned to look back, blinking its large eye.  "I can keep up!"

Nimbus hesitated, out of excuses.  Finally, he decided, _If it were going to hurt me, maybe it would have already tried._

"Okay, come on.  Hurry!"  Nimbus started out once more, telling himself that he would just leave the Dark Matter behind if it couldn't keep up.  However, the Dark Matter sped along beside him without any difficulty, even pulling ahead and looping around Nimbus playfully from time to time.  _Show off,_ Nimbus thought, although he found the Dark Matter's playfulness rather appealing.

They reached the foothills of the mountains just ahead of the rain.  The Dark Matter darted around at Nimbus' side as the Kracko searched for some kind of shelter.  Nimbus finally spotted a shallow recess under a bank on one hill.

"Over here!"  He herded the Dark Matter over to the recess, then shrugged out of his knapsack and dropped it into the shelter.

"But there's hardly any room in there!" the Dark Matter protested.  Nimbus gave it what was nearly a glare from his normally benign blue eye.

"You're complaining after all that?  Get in!"  Nimbus pushed it into the recess with one of his puffy appendages.

The Dark Matter nestled down into the recess and turned to peer up at Nimbus.  "But there's no room for _you_."

". . . Oh."  Flushing in embarrassment at his own behavior, Nimbus compressed himself enough to fill the opening to the recess so that he sheltered his knapsack and the Dark Matter with his body.  "I'll be fine-- the rain doesn't bother me."

The Dark Matter was quiet for a while, its eye moving over Nimbus several times.  Nimbus looked away, a little flustered at being studied so closely.  This didn't seem to disconcert the Dark Matter in the least; it kept staring in a way that would have gotten any young Kracko scolded soundly.  In fact, the only thing that broke its gaze was the occasional crack of thunder from outside their shelter as the storm finally broke; at each peal, the Dark Matter winced.  Cold rain began to pelt down on Nimbus' back, but the recess remained dry.

Finally, the Dark Matter spoke again in between the rumbles of thunder.  "What's your name?"

"Hunh?  Oh. . . it's Nimbus."  When the Dark Matter continued to look at him expectantly, Nimbus assumed he was meant to return the question-- even though he had never imagined that a Dark Matter would _have_ a name.  "What's yours?"

"Tycho," the Dark Matter said proudly.  "I made it up myself!"  It reached out a petal and cautiously poked one of the spikes on Nimbus' appendages.  "You're a boy Kracko, aren't you?  You have a deep voice."

"Uh, yes."  Nimbus looked down at the petal with a bit of nervousness; he wasn't used to being touched by anyone outside of his family, and he certainly wasn't used to being questioned about his gender.  Still, it seemed that Tycho wasn't easily embarrassed, which left Nimbus free to satisfy his own curiosity.  "Are you a. . . a guy too?"

The Dark Matter gave a little shrug of its petals.  "Yeah, I decided to be one when I picked my name."

Nimbus blinked at it.  "You get to choose?"

"Um, well. . . ."  Tycho squinted in thought.  "We aren't really boys _or_ girls like a lot of the people I've seen.  But I _feel_ like a boy, you know?"  Nimbus did not, in fact, know at all what being biologically sexless was like, but he nodded to be polite.  The whole turn of conversation was starting to make him nervous, so he groped for a way to change the subject.  "Say, are you hungry?"

Tycho's eye widened with excitement.  "I sure am!"  He jumped at another, sharper crack of thunder; it told Nimbus that the storm was now right on top of them.  Highly attuned to shock powers, Nimbus could feel static electricity from the lightning tickling each one of his spikes.  Now he not only wanted to change the subject, he needed a way to keep Tycho distracted from the storm. . . and a meal was as good a way as any.

"Here, you can have some of the food I gathered today.  There's been a good harvest this autumn, so there'll still be plenty for me to take home."  Nimbus opened his knapsack to show Tycho the nuts he had found around the bases of the leafless trees.

"Oh. . . .  I don't eat that kind of food."  Tycho gave him an apologetic look.  "Thanks for offering though."

"You don't eat nuts?"

"No, I mean, I don't eat. . . uh, physical food.  We Dark Matter eat energy."

"I see."  _He must mean energy from **people** ,_ Nimbus thought with a twinge of nervousness as he closed his knapsack back up.  _And he's hungry. . . ._

As if he could read Nimbus' mind, Tycho assured him, "Don't worry, I won't eat any of _your_ energy.  You're nice."

Nimbus felt his puffy cheeks grow warm.  "Um, thank you."  He paused, studying the expression in Tycho's eye.  "People aren't usually nice to you, are they?"

Tycho's eye flicked up to Nimbus' face in surprise.  "Well. . . no, not usually, so. . . I appreciate it."  He patted one of Nimbus' appendages with a petal; the sign of affection made Nimbus regret trying to get rid of Tycho earlier.  He regretted it even more when the next round of lightning and thunder made the little Dark Matter shiver and huddle closer to the Kracko's appendage.  _He really is terrified of storms!_ Nimbus realized.

"Look, if you're hungry. . . you can have some of my energy," Nimbus suggested hesitantly.  "It-- doesn't hurt, does it?"

"No, it doesn't hurt, but. . . well, it might make you feel kind of tired."  Tycho looked up at him, still with a look of surprise.  "Are-- are you sure?  No one's ever offered."  
  
"Yes, I just don't want you to be hungry.  And it looks like we could be here all night, so I'll have time to rest."  Nimbus found himself reaching out an appendage to pet Tycho's petals affectionately.  "It's all right, go ahead."

"Okay. . . if you're sure."  Tycho pressed his side against Nimbus and half-closed his eye as he gazed up at the Kracko.  Nimbus expected to feel something invasive in his mind, or perhaps the feeling of being drained.  However, he felt nothing at all.  In fact, he had a hard time keeping his mind focused on the present.  Instead, Nimbus' thoughts kept returning to his family and the past.

Nimbus tried not to dwell on the past much; there was more than enough to worry about now without dragging in sad memories.  Of course, his childhood had been happy enough as he grew up with his sister and brother under his parents' careful care.  They had never had very much, but Nimbus had never felt any lack-- until his father, a large Kracko named Stratus, died.

The day came back to him in excruciating detail.  His father had been out hunting, just as he had hundreds of times before.  However, on this day he came home early, not floating with his usual powerful gait but lurching, his green eye hazed over with pain.  He had been attacked, he managed to gasp to his distraught wife and children, but not by his prey.  Instead it had been something small and pink wearing a green cap and carrying a large sword.

Stratus hadn't even threatened the little creature; after all, the Krackos didn't eat anything sentient.  As a matter of fact, he had called out the usual, cautious greeting the hunters of the family used to alert others that they meant them no harm.  The pink puffball had stared up at Stratus with its little mouth hanging open, then it had abruptly inhaled deeply and floated up into the air.  Stratus had watched the creature in amazement, never expecting that it meant him harm-- until it slashed at his underside with its sword.

Like any self-respecting Kracko, Stratus fought bravely, but the strange pink creature seemed invulnerable.  It simply inhaled all of Stratus' electric attacks, then spit them right back at him.  Those didn't cause much damage to Stratus, but the pink thing's sword was devastating.  The creature's second swipe only nicked one of his appendages, but the third pierced Stratus' side.  He collapsed in agony, still trying to focus his eye on the pink creature as it serenely floated away, uncaring about what it had done.

Stratus had barely enough strength to make it home; he died within an hour of his return.  The years that followed were difficult as his widow and three children struggled to survive-- but right now, Nimbus' thoughts could not pass beyond the moment of his father's death.  He could almost see Stratus' lifeless body before him again, and Nimbus felt as if he were once more a child, no older than he had been on that day.  He had not cried for his father in years, yet now his eye overflowed with tears that rained down into the recess below him.

"Nimbus!"  The Kracko was jolted by the sound of his name: he had forgotten Tycho entirely.  Nimbus blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the little form before him.  Tycho was now rather damp thanks to Nimbus dripping tears on him.

"I-I'm sorry," Nimbus stammered, embarrassed as the urge to cry passed.  Everything felt slightly surreal, as if he were awaking from a vivid dream.  "I don't know what I was-- oh!"  He broke off as Tycho gave a little whimper then buried his face in Nimbus' fluffy side.

"N-no, it's my fault!" Tycho mumbled.  "I didn't know you would get that upset.  I didn't mean to make you cry!"

"What. . . ?"  Nimbus petted Tycho's back a little awkwardly.  "You didn't upset me!  I was just thinking about--"

"But it was because of me!"  Tycho shifted to turn his large eye up to Nimbus.  "I. . . I didn't tell you the whole truth.  Dark Matter eat _dark_ energy-- negative thoughts and feelings.  A lot of times we can find people who already feel bad and just feed off them.  But sometimes we can't, so we have the power to _make_ people think about bad things.  We can't see the thoughts themselves, but we can feel their negative energy and. . . it makes us stronger."  He paused then concluded in a quiet voice, "All you had was positive energy, so. . . so for you to feed me, I had to make you feel bad."

"Oh," Nimbus said with an effort.

Tycho now looked as if he might cry himself.  "Y-you must hate me," he sniffled, unconsciously melodramatic.  In fact, he reminded Nimbus of how his sister Cirrus had acted during her adolescent years.  The thought amused Nimbus and cheered him up quite a bit.

"No, of course not."  Nimbus managed a "smile" with his eye and wrapped a couple appendages around Tycho to hug him.  "It isn't your fault; it's just how you were made."  _Although,_ he wondered, _who would make creatures who had to hurt others to survive?  Who could be that cruel. . . or that indifferent?_

Tycho gave another whimper, now muffled by Nimbus' fluff, then he snuggled up against the Kracko's side.  "I'm sorry," he said again.  "I'll find dark energy from someone else from now on."  He turned to look up at Nimbus again, blinking his eye.  "But I'm not hungry anymore, so. . . thank you."

"You're welcome."

Nimbus had forgotten about the storm once he was overtaken with his memories; now it tried to reassert itself yet only managed a faint rumbling of thunder.  Tycho looked up at the noise, but then his eyelid drooped sleepily over his red and golden eye.  Nimbus realized that he could now hardly see Tycho in the dimming light.

"It must be almost dark by now," Nimbus ventured when he saw how tired Tycho looked, "and my home's pretty far away.  I might as well spend the night here.  If you want to stay too. . . ."

"Mmn, okay," murmured Tycho.  He leaned closer in to Nimbus' side and closed his eye in apparent contentment.  "Don't have anywhere else to go anyway."

"Don't you have a home?" asked Nimbus.

"Not here."  One of Tycho's petals twitched against Nimbus.  "Our home is out in space, a long way away."

Nimbus abruptly realized that he had a rare opportunity that few were granted: a chance to learn more about the mysterious Dark Matter.  "What are you doing here on Pop Star, then?"

"Zero Two sent us to look for crystals.  I dunno what for-- I guess he'll tell me when I find some."  Tycho gave a soft sigh.  "I've been here a while without seeing any.  I'm. . . not very good at this."

"Zero Two?  Who's that?" Nimbus asked, his curiosity getting the better of his sympathy for Tycho's failure.

"Oh-- you don't know who Zero Two is?"  Nimbus felt Tycho turn as if to look up at him, although it was by then too dark for Nimbus to see anything.  "He's our. . . our master, I guess you'd say.  He created all of us Dark Matter, and he tells us what to do.  He sent a bunch of us here to find crystals for him."

"I see."  Nimbus let his own eye fall closed in thought.  "Is he Dark Matter like you?"

"I don't know.  He doesn't look like us-- he's big and white, and he has wings."  Tycho sighed again.  "He's really magnificent."

"Oh."  Nimbus tried to envision a white, winged eyeball who was "really magnificent."  He couldn't manage it, but he supposed that this Zero Two was much grander than any Kracko.

As if he could read Nimbus' mind-- or maybe only sense the energy of that negative thought-- Tycho added in a small voice, "He never looks happy though-- in fact, he never looks much of _anything_.  His eye is pretty, but. . . yours is prettier, when you smile."

Nimbus felt his face flush.  "Um, thank you."  He was compelled to return the compliment-- in fact, he _wanted_ to-- but he wasn't used to saying such things to anyone, much less someone he had just met.  "I. . . like your eye too," he finally murmured.  "I've never seen one before that's two colors."

"Oh, we all look like this," Tycho told him, although he sounded pleased.  "But I'm smaller than a lot of the other Dark Matter."  He paused, then asked, "So you've never seen another Dark Matter before?  I wondered if there were more around here."

"No, I've never met any others.  There aren't many people around here at all-- in fact, my family are the only Krackos."

"Can I meet them tomorrow?"

The question caught Nimbus off guard.  "What?  You. . . want to come home with me?"

"Um, well. . . ."  Tycho sounded disappointed at his surprise.  "I thought you would let me come with you since I don't have anywhere else to go.  And maybe your family would know where I could find some crystals."

Nimbus was quiet a moment, wondering just what his family would think if he brought home a Dark Matter.  As prejudiced as Nimbus himself had been before meeting Tycho, he was sure his relatives wouldn't be exactly happy.  _But he's not bad, not at all._

"Okay," Nimbus finally agreed.  "It's a long way to our home, but you're welcome to join me."

"That's fine; I can travel a long way."  Tycho paused, then asked softly, "You. . . you don't mind?  If you don't want me to come with you, I won't."

"No, I want you to come!  Really."  Nimbus spoke before he even thought, but he realized that it was true.  Tycho was the first new friend Nimbus had made in years, and the Kracko didn't want to lose him-- which he very well might if he left Tycho out in the wilderness.  Having gathered all the nuts in the area, Nimbus wouldn't return there until new plants grew in the spring.  Tycho would surely be gone by then.

 "Thank you."  Tycho huddled closer to Nimbus' side, stretching out his petals then curling up comfortably against him.  "G'night, Nimbus."

Nimbus chuckled softly.  "Good night."

\--

to be continued


	2. Chapter 2

When Nimbus opened his eye the next morning, sunlight was streaming into the recess past his fluffy appendages.  Tycho was still sleeping in the speckled shade made by Nimbus' body, his eye closed and his golden petals relaxed around him.

Nimbus leaned carefully over him and opened his knapsack, taking out a small appendage-full of nuts for his breakfast.  He cracked each with one of his spikes, then pushed a handful of the meats into the orifice that served as his mouth, hidden in the fluff under his eye.  As he ate, he studied Tycho.  The little Dark Matter was sprawled on his back, apparently without a care in the world now that the storm had passed.

_What's Ma going to say when she sees him?_   Nimbus wondered, his eyelid dropping slightly in a frown.  _Heck, what's **Cumulus** going to say?_   Nimbus' older brother was a hunter; even as Nimbus was making one of his last gathering trips of the years, Cumulus was out on a hunting expedition.  Groomed to be the proverbial "man of the house" since mid-adolescence, Cumulus was extremely protective of his family-- and notoriously antagonistic towards anyone he thought might threaten them.  Nimbus was fairly sure that Cumulus wouldn't welcome a Dark Matter to their home.

And yet, Nimbus couldn't keep the smile from his eye as he watched Tycho shift in his sleep, turning on his side so that his petals flopped down over his face.  He looked completely harmless and innocent, at least to Nimbus.  Surely his family would be able to see it too.

Nimbus let Tycho sleep for a few more minutes, but he finally extracted himself from the recess's small opening before too much of the day got away from him.  He stretched his appendages, enjoying the refreshing feel of the cold air on his fluff, then he carefully swept the nutshells out of the recess.  (Even though he knew there wasn't much point in cleaning up a shelter he'd never visit again, years of being raised by an obsessively tidy mother had left their mark.)  Nimbus shrugged into his knapsack then looked down at Tycho fondly.

"Hey, wake up," Nimbus finally urged, nudging him with one of his lower appendages.

"Mmn?"  Tycho's large eye half opened and peered up at him.  "Is it already morning?"

Nimbus chuckled.  "A couple hours ago.  Come on, we have a long way to go to get to my home."

"Oh!"  Tycho popped up into the air immediately, curving his eyelids in a smile.  "I'm ready, let's go!"

As they floated eastward along the mountain range, towards the small, scattered settlement where Nimbus lived, Tycho chattered away, asking Nimbus questions about his family and occasionally volunteering information about his own clan of Dark Matter.  From what he said, Nimbus judged that the other Dark Matter didn't like Tycho very much; Tycho mentioned being scorned and avoided, even before he was sent on his crystal-finding mission out in the barren wasteland.

"How long have you been here on Pop Star?" Nimbus asked.

Tycho shrugged his petals.  "I dunno.  It seems like ages."  He glanced back at Nimbus from where he had drifted ahead, then Tycho slowed down to float along at Nimbus' side.  "Sometimes I think Zero Two's forgotten about me."

Nimbus looked ahead to the south-east, where they would soon turn to reach his homeland.  "What if he hasn't?  Like what if you find one of those crystals?"

"He'll call me back, to bring him the crystal," Tycho answered matter-of-factly.

"So if you find any crystals, you'll go home. . . ?"

"Unh hunh."  Tycho gave an affirmative bob in the air, then he turned to look at Nimbus curiously.  "You don't _want_ me to go home, _do_ you?"

Nimbus' cheeks flushed hotly.  "Of course I do, since you've been away so long!  You must miss it."

"Not really.  As dull as this place is, plain old space is duller!"  Tycho darted in front of Nimbus, facing him with a cocky look in his eye as he floated along backwards.  "And you _don't_ want me to go home!  You want me to stay here with you!"

Still blushing, Nimbus mumbled, "Well. . . you're the first new friend I've made in a while, so. . . I don't want you to leave too soon."

"And you're the first friend I've _ever_ made, so I don't want to leave either!"  Tycho dipped in the air then returned to Nimbus' side.  "Maybe I won't _ever_ find any crystals, then I can stay forever."

"Forever" was a serious word, and Nimbus reeled a little to imagine what his family would think when presented with a permanent houseguest.  _One thing at a time,_ he told himself.

By early afternoon, they had reached the edge of Nimbus' settlement.  No Krackos outside of his family lived there, but there were three families of other species within a few miles of one another.  Since the nearest city was a day's travel away-- and since prices there were usually more than anyone from the settlement could afford-- the Krackos sometimes traded extra goods with other families.  Nimbus liked all his neighbors, but right now, he hoped he wouldn't run into any of them: he didn't feel like trying to explain Tycho to them.

Soon Nimbus' own dwelling came into sight.  It was the largest house in the settlement, as his father Stratus had worked hard and added on to it right up until his death.  The house's main room was constructed of stones, but the additional rooms-- bedrooms for each child and one for their parents, as well as a small storage room-- were built with bricks fashioned from mud and straw.  Behind the house lay a wide patio of flat stones where the family dried food for winter, and they kept a garden beyond that.

Nimbus took Tycho there first, leading him around the house to the garden.  There was a good chance that Cirrus was working outside, and Nimbus decided it would be best to introduce Tycho to his sister before the rest of the family.  Still, it was hard to keep Tycho away from the house; the little Dark Matter stared at it with awe.

"You live _here_?  I've never lived in a _house_ before."  
  
"Yes, my father built it," Nimbus told him proudly.  "We each have our own room.  You can stay in mine while you're here."

"Great!"  Tycho's attention was finally diverted when the garden came in sight.  Nimbus was relieved to see Cirrus working there alone, slicing at the stem of a single pumpkin with one of her spikes.

"Here, get behind me," he murmured to Tycho.  "That's my sister; I don't want to startle her."

"Oh. . . okay."  Tycho sounded a bit disappointed, but he hid behind Nimbus all the same.

"Sis!" Nimbus called once the Dark Matter was concealed.  "I'm home!"

"Nimbus!"  Cirrus floated over to him and gave him a hug with her appendages, which were less prominent than his own.  When she drew back, he was pleased to see that she wore one of the headbands he had made for her: it was crafted from leather thongs and adorned with two large snail shells, as well as a hunk of golden tree resin Nimbus had smoothed into a cabochon.  
  
"I was worried when you didn't come home last-- oh!"  Cirrus broke off in shock, and Nimbus realized that she had seen Tycho.  Nimbus turned to behold the Dark Matter peeking out at Cirrus from behind him.  
  
"This is Tycho," Nimbus introduced them awkwardly.  "I met him last night."  
  
"Oh."  Cirrus blinked her large green eye, then gave Tycho a polite little bow.  "I'm Cirrus."  
  
"Hi."  Tycho blinked up at her, but at the same time, he pressed closer to Nimbus' side-- as if Cirrus were the monster and he needed Nimbus' protection from her.  
  
"How's the garden today?" Nimbus asked after an awkward moment of silence.  
  
"Oh, it's terrific-- the last pumpkin's ripe!"  Discussing plants-- the favorite subject of both Nimbus and Cirrus-- had diffused some of the tension, and Cirrus looked happy as she floated over to the small garden plot.  Although the land surrounding the Krackos' home was generally barren except for the ever-present carpet of moss, Cirrus and their mother Ebru had found a spot fertile enough to maintain a small garden.  Their work ensured that the family had enough food during the summer and autumn, as well as less-perishable harvests to put by for winter.  
  
Nimbus followed his sister to admire the pumpkin.  It wasn't especially large, but it looked healthy and full of promise for good eating.  
  
"This is about the end of the garden," Cirrus said with a soft sigh.  "I hope we have enough food to last the winter."  
  
Nimbus patted her on the back.  "We'll be fine.  I found a ton of nuts yesterday-- my bag's full!  I'm sure Cumulus will bring back some meat too."  He hesitated, then added reluctantly, "I can help you and Ma dry it, now that there's not much gathering left to do."

Cirrus giggled at his discomfiture.  "Now that's a sacrifice-- I know how you feel about raw meat with that weak stomach of yours."  She was interrupted by a small noise from Tycho, who had followed them and was floating again by Nimbus' side.  His yellow and red eye was turned up to watch the girl Kracko a bit jealously; he was obviously feeling left out.

"Um, what kind of food do you eat, Tycho?" Cirrus asked him politely, apparently realizing how he felt.  Nimbus braced himself for Tycho to declare that he ate bad feelings.

Instead, Tycho only said, "I don't need to eat your kind of food, just energy."  He paused, then blurted out, "If you let me stay, I won't use up any of your food, I promise!"

"Oh, er. . . ."  Cirrus blinked at him, then looked at Nimbus.  "He's. . . staying?  Have you talked to Ma?"

"No, um, not yet."  Nimbus flushed a little, feeling rather trapped.  "I wanted you to meet him first."  Tycho looked down sadly, and Nimbus suddenly felt guilty instead.  He wrapped an appendage around Tycho and gave him a little hug.  Tycho flicked his eye back up to Nimbus' gratefully.

"Let's go inside," Nimbus told Cirrus.  "I guess Cumulus isn't home yet?"

"Nah."  Cirrus picked up the pumpkin in her appendages and started carrying it to the house.  "Probably a good thing," she added.  "I'm not sure what he'll think of your friend."

She led the way back to the house, with Nimbus and Tycho following.  Tycho looked around as they entered the house's wide back door-- broad enough to allow even a large Kracko to pass through.  The back door led into the home's storage room, the walls of which were lined floor to ceiling with shelves.  Each shelf held some of the family's food supply: nuts, seeds, dried meat and fruit, potatoes.  Nimbus dropped his knapsack on the floor, planning to store its contents later, then he put an appendage on Tycho's back to guide him into the main room.

"Ma, Nimbus is home!" Cirrus was telling their mother as Nimbus joined them.  " _And_ the pumpkin's ripe!  Can we have pumpkin for supper?"

Their mother, Ebru, smiled at them with her deep violet eye from where she was seated before the fireplace, roasting some nuts.  Unlike Nimbus and Cirrus, she was a Dark Kracko; her fluff was a rich mauve rather than white.  "If you'll help roast the seeds."  She looked up at Nimbus fondly.  "And I'm glad you're finally home.  Did you get caught in the storm?"

"Yes, but it wasn't bad."  This time, Tycho had stayed behind Nimbus, which left the Kracko in the awkward position of introducing him.  "Uh, Ma, I. . . want you to meet someone."  He turned and urged Tycho forward.  "This is Tycho; I found him out in the wasteland."

Ebru's eye widened.  "Nimbus, he's--"  She broke off and made an obvious effort to be polite.  "Hello, Tycho.  I'm Ebru."

"Hello."  Tycho all but clung to Nimbus' appendage as he looked at Ebru.  Nimbus realized that she might be a little startling, since Dark Krackos were far less common than the lighter variety.  Besides her difference in color, her spikes were a bit longer than Nimbus', and they were adorned with naturally-occurring stripes.  Still, Ebru was the gentlest person Nimbus knew.

"Ma, Tycho doesn't have anywhere to live," Nimbus ventured.  "I thought maybe he could help us out around here if, uh. . . we let him stay for a while."

"I don't eat anything," Tycho volunteered.  It seemed to be the only way he knew to reassure Nimbus' family, although Nimbus had a feeling they were as much afraid of being possessed as of losing their food.

"I don't know, Nimbus," Ebru murmured.  Nimbus knew exactly what she was thinking: _How can we trust a Dark Matter?_   He supposed that Tycho would be able to get an idea of her thoughts as well; after all, they must certainly be negative ones.  Ebru added, "If we do take in a. . . guest, your brother should be part of the decision too."

To Nimbus' surprise, Cirrus volunteered, "He could at least stay until Cumulus gets home.  That'll be a couple days, so we could see, um, if Tycho likes it here."

"I'll do whatever you ask me to," added Tycho.  "I promise, I can help you!"

"Hmn."  Ebru lifted off the floor and floated a little closer to look down at him.  "Tell me one thing, little one. . . .   Why _do_ you want to stay here with us?  I've only met one Dark Matter before, and it. . . wasn't friendly."

Tycho blinked up at her, then lowered his eye shyly.  "I. . . I like Nimbus.  I've never had a friend before, but. . . he was nice to me.  I want to stay with him."  Both Cirrus and Ebru looked rather startled; the expression in their inquisitive eyes made Nimbus flush a little.  Still, Ebru only nodded.

"Well, you're welcome to our home then."  Her eye softened, and she smiled at Tycho gently.  "I'm sorry if we seem unfriendly, but we don't have guests very often.  I wouldn't feel right telling you to stay without asking my oldest son, Cumulus, first.  He should return from hunting the day after tomorrow."

"It's okay."  Tycho looked a bit more cheerful.  "I understand-- and I'll do my best!  I'll make myself useful to you."

"Why don't we start with this pumpkin?" Cirrus suggested with a little chuckle, indicating that she was warming up to Tycho.  "Nimbus gets grossed out pretty easily, so he doesn't like pumpkin goop.  You can help with it instead."

Tycho gazed up at her blankly.  "What's pumpkin goop?"

Nimbus hesitated at leaving Tycho alone with his family-- and vice versa-- but the sight of the "goop" inside the pumpkin drove him back to the store room to put away the nuts he had gathered on his trip.  By the time he returned to the main room, Ebru was putting the fruit of the pumpkin over the fire to stew.  While Cirrus tended a small fire warming up the oven beside the fire place, Tycho was absorbed in arranging the pumpkin's seeds in one of the family's few pans.

"Roasting the seeds, hunh?" Nimbus asked, settling down beside him.

"Yeah!  Cirrus asked me to put them in the pan for her."  Tycho nudged a few of the seeds, adjusting their positions.  "Does this look okay?"

Nimbus held back a chuckle at Tycho's intensity.  "Yes, I think that's fine."  He put an appendage around Tycho to pat him on the back.  "It's too bad you don't eat; pumpkin seeds are really good."

"Yeah, you may change your mind about food after today!" Cirrus added as she joined them, carrying a bottle of sunflower seed oil and a small bowl of salt in her appendages.  "Ma's a great cook, and I've learned a few tricks myself!"

"What about you?  Do you cook?"  Tycho looked up at Nimbus a moment before Cirrus' preparation of the seeds distracted him.

"Uh, not much," Nimbus admitted.  "I can do some basics for when I'm out on my own, but nothing fancy."  He watched as Cirrus sprinkled the seeds with oil and salt, then put the pan in the oven.

"We don't eat everything we grow right away," Cirrus explained when she returned to them and sat down to watch the oven.  "With most of the pumpkins, we saved all the seeds either to plant next year or eat during the winter.  But we had a really good harvest, so we can splurge a little."

"You all work very hard," murmured Tycho, turning his golden eye to watch Ebru at the fire.  "I've never done things like this before."

"Since you don't eat, I guess it does cut down on the work," Cirrus pointed out.

Seeing the reflection of the firelight on Tycho's golden petals, Nimbus was struck with a question.  "How did you stay warm last winter, if you didn't have a home?"

"Oh. . . I _didn't_ stay warm," Tycho said, shrugging the petals.  "I'm used to the cold though.  Space is _really_ cold, you know."  Nimbus didn't know about space, but he _did_ know about flying in high altitudes, which were cold indeed.

Tycho turned back to Nimbus and looked up at him.  "Do you have to keep warm to stay alive?  I wonder if. . . if you could live in space."  Cirrus made a soft, curious noise, but Tycho paid her no attention.

"I don't think so," Nimbus admitted.  "We Krackos can survive freezing temperatures but not indefinitely-- and it sounds like space is far too cold for us."

"Oh."  Tycho blinked, then leaned against Nimbus' nearest appendage.  "Well, I'd rather be warm than cold anyway.  It's nice having a fire."

They spent the rest of the afternoon in a similar fashion, working on the evening meal and explaining things to Tycho.  The little Dark Matter was full of endless questions, but Nimbus was relieved to find that neither Cirrus nor Ebru seemed to mind.  In fact, they had warmed up to Tycho more than Nimbus had expected; although Nimbus sometimes caught Ebru looking at the Dark Matter with a worried gaze, she was consistently kind to him.

As the sun went down that evening, cold began to settle in the corners of the room.  Nimbus brought in another load of wood for the fire, and Ebru built it up to warm them until bedtime.  By then the stewed pumpkin was thoroughly cooked, and the Krackos sat down to dinner on woven grass mats arranged in the center of the room.  Despite not being able to eat, Tycho was greatly interested in the meal; he sat between Nimbus and Cirrus and watched every bite that disappeared into Nimbus' concealed mouth.

With their meal, the Krackos drank cold water from their small well, but after dinner, Ebru began to brew tea from dried leaves over the fire.  She had just turned to speak to her children when a noise at the front door made them all look.  Even though both house doors were kept locked from the inside at night, they all worried whenever they heard something there.  But this time, the noise resolved itself into a familiar tapping pattern: the unique signal the family members used with one another.  
  
"Is that Cumulus already?" Ebru murmured, her violet eye brightening with relief.  Nimbus knew how she much she feared for her son's safety when he was on a hunt: what if the pink creature returned?  She floated to the door and opened a small viewing hatch, then satisfied, she unlatched the door.

As wide as the doorway was, Nimbus' brother filled it completely.  He was a Dark Kracko like his mother, but he wore a leather wrap instead of her cloth apron, and an atlatl was strapped to his back.  As he moved into the room, firelight reflected in his deep red eye.  His expression was almost as joyful as his mother's. . . until that eye fell on Tycho.

"Dark Matter!" Cumulus growled.  He whipped his weapon from his back with one appendage and leveled it right at Tycho's pupil.  Having seen his brother practice using the atlatl hundreds of times, Nimbus knew that the range was far too close for Cumulus to launch a projectile.  Still, there was nothing to stop him from stabbing Tycho in the eye with the sharp arrowhead on the projectile's tip.

Before Nimbus could even begin to explain, Tycho launched himself into the air.  The point of Cumulus' weapon tracked him as the Dark Matter frantically tried to escape it.  Tycho darted to the floor again only to cower in front of the fireplace.

"Cumulus, stop it!" Nimbus finally managed to blurt out.  "He's our guest!"

Cumulus' angry eye glanced at him, then back at his prey.  "Have you possessed him, you little demon?"

"Of course he hasn't possessed me!" Nimbus snapped, only to be completely ignored.  He was reminded yet again of why he and his brother didn't always get along.

"No one's been possessed," Ebru tried to convince Cumulus.  She put an appendage on his side, only to have him put her back with a snarl.

"Her too?"

"I haven't possessed anybody!" Tycho wailed.  He looked so small and forlorn there, alone on the floor, that Nimbus forgot all about the fact that his brother had every right to be wary-- and the fact that Tycho could very well have possessed any one of them.  All Nimbus could think about was that his friend was scared to death all because Cumulus was too stubborn to listen to them.

Nimbus floated in front of Tycho, placing himself between the Dark Matter and the atlatl's point.  Cumulus' eye widened, and Nimbus could see conflicting conclusions there: if Nimbus _were_ possessed, of course the Dark Matter could use him as a shield.  But despite their differences, Cumulus couldn't bring himself to harm his brother, possessed or not.

"This is Tycho.  He's my friend," Nimbus told Cumulus firmly.  "He hasn't possessed any of us; he's just visiting."

" _Visiting?_ "  Cumulus looked at each member of his family suspiciously, then he finally lowered his weapon.  Tycho gave a little moan of relief, then Nimbus felt the Dark Matter pressing against his fluffy back, trembling.

Cumulus shoved his atlatl back in its sheath on his back, then glared at his brother.  "So tell me. . . just how did you end up making friends with a Dark Matter?"

\--  
  
to be continued  



	3. Chapter 3

Nimbus related the entire story to his family over tea that evening, while Cumulus ate his dinner and listened in gruff silence.  Tycho didn't really help his own case because he kept piping up to embellish the story; Cumulus looked more irritated with each interruption.  Still, he listened to the whole tale before speaking.

"So what does it want with us?" he asked Nimbus when the younger Kracko finally finished.  Nimbus narrowed his eye at the way his brother referred to Tycho, as if he weren't even there; however, he knew better than to pick a fight right then.

" _He_ just wants a place to stay; that's all," Nimbus said firmly.  "He doesn't have a home here on Pop Star, and there's no telling when he'll be able to return to space."

"So there's also no telling when he'll leave, is there?" Cumulus replied, his eyelid lowered in a straight line to cover half of his eye.  He finished off the last of his tea and sighed.

"Cumulus, he _has_ been helpful today," murmured Ebru.  "And I really don't think he means us any harm.  It can't hurt to let him stay, at least for a little while."

"I think it could hurt plenty," Cumulus retorted, then he turned to look down at Tycho intently.  "If the rest of the family wants you to stay, I won't interfere.  But if you do anything to harm a single spike on one of us, I'll spear you straight through!"

Tycho's eye widened fearfully.  The threat had the desired effect, even though Nimbus saw a certain lack of logic in it: if Tycho was really so dangerous, how could Cumulus expect to kill him that easily?  Apparently Tycho wasn't analytical enough to understand the contradiction.

"Come on," Nimbus said to Tycho, gently putting an appendage around him.  "I'll show you my room, where you can stay."

"Okay."  Tycho gave Cumulus one last frightened glance, then he looked at Ebru and made a little bowing motion.  "Um, thank you for letting me stay.  And for being nice to me."

Ebru looked surprised, then she smiled with her violet eye.  "You're welcome, little one.  Have a good night's rest."

Nimbus took Tycho to his room, carrying a small lamp to light their way.  He shut the door behind them-- latching it after a moment's thought about Cumulus' aggressiveness-- then turned to find Tycho looking around him in wonder.

"Did you do all this?" the Dark Matter asked softly.  He leaned back and raised his eye to the low ceiling, from which hung bundle after bundle of long, fragrant dried grasses.

"Yes, I collect and dry them during the summer, then we make things with them during the winter.  I'm not good at weaving, so Cirrus makes our mats with them-- but I keep our nests repaired."  Nimbus floated over to his cozy nest in the middle of the room.  It was round, contained within a wooden frame filled with grasses curled to its shape.  The inner layer was lined with shed Kracko fluff, and a colorful woven blanket lay neatly folded in the bottom.

"I've never had a bed before!" Tycho breathed, hurrying over to peer inside; he was barely tall enough to see over the edge.  "You did a really good job."

"Well, Cirrus made the blanket," Nimbus admitted, even as he flushed with pride.  "She's our weaver.  I did the rest though."

"What's all this?"  Tycho made his way around the nest, looking at various other piles of things in Nimbus' room.  Smiling to himself, Nimbus followed him to explain.

"Let's see. . . .  That jar is my seed collection-- I save one seed from each plant we raise or that I find while gathering.  I also take leaves and flowers from the plant and press them between those two flat rocks.  Then. . . I put them in here."

From on top of the rocks, Nimbus took his prized possession, a real book he had gotten on one of the family's infrequent trips to town.  Its pages had been blank when he bought it, but when he now opened it, it was nearly filled.  Each page held a pressed leaf and in some cases a flower, and each was labeled in carefully lettered cloud-script.  Tycho ducked under Nimbus' appendage and wiggled his way in front to look down at the book.  His little body felt surprisingly warm against Nimbus's front.

"What does it say?  Is that the name of the plant the leaves are from?"

"Yes, and the place and time of year I found it."  Nimbus leaned forward a little to rest his cheek against Tycho's petals.  "If you stay here through the winter, I'll teach you to read our language."

"I'd like that.  Zero Two gave us a lot of knowledge when he created us, but he didn't teach us how to read.  I guess he thought we didn't need to know, but. . . I think it would be fun."

"We don't have many books, but my mother has a few that were hers when she was a girl.  She taught us from those, because new ones are very expensive.  This blank one cost me a lot-- I had found a crop of rare nuts that year, and I had to sell every one of them to afford it!"

"But it's important to you, isn't it?"  Tycho leaned back against him and turned to look up into his eye.  "The plants I mean. . . having a place to collect them."

"Yes."  Nimbus looked down at his journal a moment, then reached around Tycho to close it and carefully put it back in its place.  "Someday. . . I'd like to grow my own plants, when I don't have to spend so much time looking for food.  I think I could figure out how to make the ones we have grow stronger, and how to make new kinds too."

"Maybe I could help you," Tycho whispered.  "I'll. . . I'll find some way to help your family get lots of food!  Then we could make our own garden where you could grow plants all the time."

Nimbus knew that there was no way Tycho-- Dark Matter or not-- could make his family's existence easier.  But the very naïveté of his statement made it sweet, and Nimbus gave him a little hug with his appendages.

"Come, let's go to bed.  I'm tired after all that work today."

He herded Tycho over to the nest, then blew out the lamp before climbing in; all the dried grass in the room made him always cautious of fire.  Tycho scrambled in after him, landing on top of Nimbus with a thump.

"Oof!  You're heavier than you look," Nimbus chuckled.  He nestled down into his usual spot, then settled Tycho in beside him before pulling the blanket up around them.  Nimbus had made the nest to his exact size, and there wasn't much room to share; still, Tycho was small enough that they could both fit comfortably.

"Mmn, you're soft," Tycho mumbled as he snuggled down against Nimbus's fluffy side.  "All the other Dark Matter are so lumpy!  We used to sleep in piles to stay warmer, but it wasn't nice like this."

For some reason, the thought of Tycho nesting with anyone else made Nimbus unhappy.  "Did you have any, um, close friends in the Dark Matter?"

"No. . . it's like I told you today, none of them liked me much.  They said I was too flighty.  You're the only friend I've ever had."  Although Nimbus couldn't see anything in the dark, he felt one Tycho's petals absently burrowing into the fluff on his face.  After a moment, Nimbus found the petal in his mouth.

"Mmph!"

"What's that?" Tycho asked.

"Iss my mouf!  Pah!"  Nimbus managed to spit out the petal with a chuckle.  "Now keep still and go to sleep."

"Okay, Nimbus."  Tycho gave him a little hug with his petals and murmured, "Good night."

"Good night," Nimbus replied, holding him close.

\--

Just like before, Tycho was still sound asleep when Nimbus awoke the next morning.  This time Nimbus decided to just let him sleep.  The Kracko carefully extracted himself from the nest and tucked the blanket back around Tycho, then he got ready for the day.  Since he would be staying at home, he didn't need his knapsack; instead he put on a headband of braided grasses Cirrus had given him last Yule.  Nimbus carefully groomed his fluff with a shell comb before going into the main room.

He had hoped to find his mother alone there so that he could talk to her about Tycho, but Cumulus was already up too, standing in front of the fire to help Ebru make breakfast.

Swallowing his disappointment, Nimbus greeted them both.  "Good morning."

"Good morning, sweetheart."  Ebru floated over to him and gave him a butterfly kiss with her eyelashes.

"Morning, Nimbus."  Cumulus seemed to be in a better mood than the previous evening; he half-turned to look at Nimbus and even smiled a little.  "I found a clutch of eggs yesterday, so guess what we're having for breakfast!"

"Excellent!"  Nimbus floated over to admire the six eggs his brother was frying in their pan.  "You must have had a lucky trip."

"Yeah.  You should see the deer I left out on the patio!"  Cumulus chuckled and lifted an appendage to give Nimbus a noogie; fortunately, Nimbus' head-fluff cushioned Cumulus' sharp spike.  "But then you'd probably puke."

"Hey, I told Cirrus I'd help dry it!" Nimbus protested, wiggling free of the playful attack.

"Don't worry about it.  I'm staying home for a while, so I can do it."

Nimbus was grateful that he wouldn't have to deal with the raw meat, but Cumulus' staying home concerned him.  Cumulus was usually gone hunting constantly throughout the autumn, up until (and sometimes after) the first snowfall; he would spend a night at home in between trips but then be off again.  _I know why he's not going back out,_ Nimbus thought grimly.  _He wants to keep an eye on Tycho._

Ebru came over to the fireplace to check on the water she was boiling for their morning tea.  "Nimbus, you and Tycho could start checking over the house for winter while we work on the meat.  Cirrus and I haven't had time to make any repairs yet."

"Sure, Ma.  Yesterday I noticed a place in the store room wall that needs patching, so we can start there."

Ebru took the tea kettle down and added the leaves to brew.  "I suppose Cirrus is still asleep.  She's going to miss breakfast."

"Not if those are eggs Cumulus is cooking!"  Cirrus came floating in from her bedroom, her fluff rumpled and her eye still sleepy.

Tycho joined them while they were eating.  He came to rest next to Nimbus on his mat, blinking sleepily.  Everyone greeted him, although Cumulus sounded reluctant and he kept looking at Tycho with suspicion.  Tycho, though, didn't seem to notice.  Instead, he watched Nimbus eat and even dipped a petal into his cup of tea at one point.

After they had cleaned up from breakfast, Nimbus took Tycho to the store room to start looking over the house for any damage that would need to be repaired before winter.  The rest of the Krackos went out to the patio to start skinning and cutting up the deer Cumulus had killed.

"Why don't you like meat?" Tycho asked as he cast his large eye over each inch of the store room's walls.  As with the pumpkin seeds, he was working a bit too hard at his task, but Nimbus appreciated the help anyway.

"I like meat okay," Nimbus explained.  "It's just uncooked meat-- or anything bloody or slimy, really.  It makes me feel sick."

"Oh."  Tycho was unusually quiet for a moment, then he said, "Zero Two bleeds sometimes.  You probably wouldn't like him either, then."

"He. . . bleeds?"  Nimbus tried not to make a disgusted face.  "Does he get hurt a lot or something?"

"No, it's not that.  He. . . bleeds from his eye.  He cries blood."  Nimbus turned to stare at Tycho, but the Dark Matter was looking away from him, at the wall.  "He cries a lot."

Nimbus had no idea how to respond to that, although his mental image of Zero Two was growing more and more monstrous.  Finally he decided to change the subject.

"Hey, can you check along the top of the wall, at the ceiling?  Make sure that there aren't any cracks between the bricks where water or snow could get in."

"Sure!"  Sounding perfectly cheerful again, Tycho floated up to the ceiling and began to search.  "Yeah, there's one little hole here, on the outside wall."

"Thanks, I never would have seen that," Nimbus said, hoping to make his friend feel useful.  All told, they found three spots that needed repair.  Nimbus mixed up a paste of clay and sand, and Tycho had great fun scooping up the goop with his petals and filling the holes.  Afterwards, they moved outside to work on the thatched roof.

As Nimbus examined the front part of the room, Tycho started to help but then was distracted by the rest of the Krackos' chatter as they worked on the deer.  The Dark Matter drifted closer and closer to the back of the house, trying to see what was going on.

"You can go down there and watch," Nimbus finally told him, realizing that Tycho wasn't getting much work done the way it was.  Tycho hesitated, then turned and came back to Nimbus' side.

"No, I'd rather stay with you."  Tycho began to search through the thatch with his petals.  "Um, Nimbus. . . do you have any other friends?"

"Well, I like our neighbors-- there are a few other families around.  But there aren't any other people near my age around here besides my siblings; they're all a lot older or younger.  Cirrus was pretty much the only friend I could spend time with once Cumulus started hunting."

Tycho pressed a little closer to his side.  "Then you don't have another friend like me?"

Nimbus chuckled a little.  "I don't even _know_ anyone else like you."  He put an appendage around Tycho to hug him close.  "We haven't known each other very long, but now you're my best friend, okay?"

"Okay."  Tycho looked up at him happily.  "And you're mine too!"  He leaned up and fluttered his eyelid against Nimbus' cheek.  Nimbus flushed, even though there was no way Tycho could know that it was the Kracko equivalent of a kiss.

For the rest of the day, Nimbus and Tycho worked on repairing the house; with Tycho's help, Nimbus managed to check over the entire outside of the structure.  To his relief, the other Krackos finished butchering the deer and salting the meat to dry without needing his assistance.  After dinner, Ebru pulled out a large tin tub from one corner of the main room and began to heat another kettle of water over the fire.

"What's she gonna do with that?" Tycho whispered.

"Make us take baths," Nimbus smiled.  "We Krackos stay pretty clean, but we've all been doing some dirty work today."

"You two can go first," laughed Ebru.  "The three of us already washed up some, but you're both covered in dust!"

"Together?" Cumulus questioned, giving Nimbus a peculiar look.  Cirrus stifled a giggle that made Nimbus' cheeks flare red.  Ebru, however, either ignored or didn't get their meaning.

"Tycho's so small, there's no point in drawing a separate bath for him," she said firmly.  "Nimbus, let me know when you're finished so I can go next."

"Yes, Ma."  Nimbus was still blushing as his family left the room.  He busied himself with pouring off the boiling water into the tub and mixing it with cold water from the well until it was just the right temperature.

"I've never had a bath before," Tycho said with a hint of nervousness.  "We don't sweat or anything, so I've never needed one."

"Well, you _are_ pretty dusty."  Nimbus hefted himself into the tub, then peered out at Tycho from over the side.  "Don't worry, it's nice as long as it doesn't get cold."

"Okay. . . ."  Tycho floated up over the side of the tub then cautiously lowered himself into the water.  "Hey-- it _does_ feel pretty nice."

Nimbus picked up a bar of homemade soap in one appendage and began to lather up his fluff.  Tycho giggled as he watched.

"What's so funny?"  Nimbus rinsed off, blinking water from his eye.

"You look a lot smaller when you're wet!  You're all soggy."

"You would be too if you were fluffy!" Nimbus retorted, chuckling as he grabbed Tycho in two appendages and dunked him under the water.  "And Ma wants you clean too, so you can't just sit there!"  He rubbed the soap over Tycho's petals and scrubbed him all over.  Tycho spluttered and protested but came up with his petals shining after a final rinse.

Nimbus helped Tycho out of the tub then floated up to wring out his fluff.  He was still rather damp even after drying off with a towel, and the cold night air penetrated all the way down to his core when he dumped the bath water outside and drew fresh water from the well to heat for his mother's bath.

"Are you okay?" Tycho asked when Nimbus came back in, shivering.  The Dark Matter was wrapped up in a towel of his own, peering up at Nimbus from within its folds.

"Yeah, just chilly."  Nimbus started the water heating then warmed himself in front of the fire.  "It's always a little cold until I dry."

"Here, I'll help!"  Tycho wiggled out of his towel and joined Nimbus at the fire, where he started stroking and lifting clumps of Nimbus' fluff so the fire could dry it.  "Mm, you smell nice."

"We scent the soap with lavender we grow," Nimbus explained as he watched Tycho work.  "You smell nice too now."

"I didn't know you _could_ smell," Tycho giggled.  "We can through our petals.  What about you?"

"We take in scent particles through our mouths."  Nimbus shook his appendages, fluffing himself up.  "There, that's good enough.  I don't want to keep Ma waiting, and Cirrus and Cumulus still have to bathe too."

"Aww, I like it in here by the fire.  It's nice and warm!"

"Don't tell me you're already spoiled.  I thought Dark Matter could take the cold," Nimbus teased as he went to tell Ebru her bath was ready.

Back in Nimbus' room, Tycho wanted to look at his plant journal, so the Kracko brought it over to his nest where they curled up together.  _I guess it's **our** nest now,_ Nimbus thought, feeling surprisingly happy about it.  Tycho asked lots of questions about Nimbus' collection at first, but the questions came farther and farther apart; when Nimbus next looked down at the Dark Matter, his eye had fallen closed.

Nimbus put aside the journal and blew out the lamp.  He wasn't especially sleepy yet, but he didn't mind just holding Tycho until he drifted off too.  He pulled the blanket up around them and closed his eye. . . only to have Tycho speak a moment later.

"Nimbus?  You're warm too. . . like the fire."

"Well, I'm glad.  I don't want you to be cold."

"I wish I were a Kracko!" the Dark Matter exclaimed suddenly.

"Hunh?  Why?"

Tycho didn't answer at first, but then he pressed his eye against Nimbus and mumbled, "I want to be like you and do the things Krackos do.  I don't even have a mouth!"

"You don't _need_ a mouth," Nimbus tried to reassure him, although he was puzzled at the outburst.  "You don't eat, and you manage to talk just fine."

"That's because of my petals.  They resonate to make noise, so by vibrating them a certain way, I can form words.  But-- I want to do more than talk!  I want to be able to eat food and drink tea with you, and. . . well, it's not just the mouth.  If I were a Kracko, your family would like me."

"Tycho, they do like you, I promise."  Nimbus stroked Tycho's petals as he spoke.  "At least, Ma and Cirrus do, and Cumulus will come around.  He's actually nice; it's just that. . . well, my father was murdered a long time ago, and Cumulus has been overprotective of Ma and us younger kids ever since."

"But he would trust me more if I weren't a Dark Matter."  
  
"Don't worry about Cumulus, okay?"  Nimbus hugged Tycho to him tightly.  "You know that _I_ like you, so why do you care what they think?"  
  
"Because they. . . th-they would be mad if they knew how _much_ I like you.  I want to stay with you forever, and I know they won't let me."

Nimbus swallowed hard.  He wasn't sure just "how much" Tycho liked him, but it made him realize how much _he_ liked _Tycho_. . . after only two days.  _It's too soon for me to care about him like this,_ Nimbus tried to tell himself.

Aloud, he said, "Try not to worry about forever yet.  Just give them some more time-- give them a chance like you want from them."  Tycho made a soft, unhappy noise, and Nimbus pulled him close again, brushing his eyelid against Tycho's "cheek" without thinking.  "I know they won't turn you out once winter comes, and if you keep working hard until then, just like you've been doing, even Cumulus won't have a reason to make you leave."

"And then we can be together the whole winter?" Tycho asked in a small voice.  "You promise?"

"I promise."  Nimbus "kissed" Tycho over and over again, part of him wishing that the Dark Matter understood the gesture and the rest of him very glad that Tycho _didn't_ understand.  Tycho finally fell asleep cradled between the blanket and Nimbus' fluff, but Nimbus stayed awake for a long time.

\--

To be continued


	4. Chapter 4

The next few weeks passed more smoothly than Nimbus had expected.  The Krackos finished their preparations for winter in advance of the first snow fall: Nimbus and Tycho patched the rest of the house; Cirrus harvested the last few straggling vegetables; Cumulus finished salting and drying the meat.  By the time a few fat snowflakes began to fall one evening, they had a warm, dry house and enough food to last for months.

Despite their store of food, Cumulus had left on another hunt when the snow came; he had finally come to trust Tycho enough to leave the house for a few days.  That night, the three remaining Krackos and Tycho sat around the fire while Nimbus worked on teaching Tycho to read.  Since the family had no simple books, Nimbus had written out the cloud alphabet on a page of his journal, just as Ebru had done for each of her children.  Tycho had learned the alphabet quickly and could even write it himself by holding a quill between two of his petals.  Now he was learning the short words in one of Ebru's precious books.

"'The Krackos or. . . ori. . . .'"

"'Originated,'" Nimbus read for him. "That's a long one."

"He'll never learn if you keep telling him the answers," Cirrus said for the millionth time.

"I will so learn," Tycho replied haughtily.  "I already know the rest of the sentence!  'In the skies of Pop Star.'"

"A Kracko Jr. could read _that_ ," retorted Cirrus.

"Why don't you practice writing instead?" Nimbus suggested, rolling his eye at Cirrus.  "You can read to me later."

"Okay!"  Tycho opened Nimbus' journal to a blank page, then glanced up at him.  "I feel bad about filling up pages in your journal though.  I'll have to figure out a way to make some money so I can buy you another one!"

Nimbus just chuckled and brought him the quill and ink jar.  "Don't worry about it.  I've probably already recorded all the plants around here anyway."

Tycho pulled the journal close to him, angling it so that Nimbus couldn't see what he was writing.  "You can't look until I'm finished!" he declared, then he picked up the quill and began to scratch at the paper, squinting in concentration.

Apparently bored without anything to tease Tycho about, Cirrus floated up from her mat and stretched.  "I'm going to work on Yule presents, so I'll see you all in the morning."

"Goodnight, dear."  Ebru looked up from the blanket she was weaving for Cumulus to smile at her daughter.  They had all begun working on Yule gifts for one another, mostly in the privacy of their own rooms.  The holiday, held on the Winter Solstice every year, was only a month away.  Although most of the day was devoted to praise of and thanksgiving to Zakkiel, the angel of storms whom the Krackos worshipped, it was also traditional to exchange gifts in his name.  All of Nimbus' family's gifts were homemade, but that made them all the more special.

Tycho too looked up from his work.  "Cirrus, can I come watch when I get through writing?"

"Sure," Cirrus called back on her way to her room.

As he watched Tycho writing, Nimbus wondered just what he found so fascinating about Cirrus' gift-making.  Despite their friendly bickering, Tycho went to Cirrus' room nearly every evening to see the presents she was creating.  When Nimbus questioned her about it, she only teased him about being jealous that Tycho was spending time with her.

"There, I'm finished!" Tycho's announcement interrupted Nimbus' pondering.  The Dark Matter slid the journal over to Nimbus and watched him with an expression half proud and half apprehensive.  Nimbus looked down at his work to see both their names written in cloud script, the letters a little shaky but quite legible.  Underneath, Tycho had drawn the two of them together, Nimbus holding one of Tycho's petals in an appendage.

"Did I do a good job?" Tycho asked softly.

"Y-yeah.  It's perfect."  Nimbus gave him a slightly watery eye-smile.  "Thank you, Tycho."

Tycho hopped up and floated over to him, giving his cheek a nuzzle.  "I'll see you in a little while.  I want to watch you work on Cirrus' new head band."

"Okay."  Nimbus carefully closed the journal as Tycho left.  When he looked up again, he found his mother watching him with a little smile in her eye.

"Uh, I'm gonna go work on some presents myself," Nimbus mumbled.  "I've still got a lot of work to do on yours, Ma-- it's gotta be perfect!"

Ebru was not distracted in the least.  "What are you going to give Tycho?"

"Oh. . . I'm making him a head band.  I know he doesn't wear anything now, but. . . maybe it'll make him feel more like part of the family."

"I think he already feels that way with you," Ebru said gently, "but I'm sure he'll like it."

Nimbus slunk off to his room with his journal, embarrassed that his mother not only knew how he felt about Tycho but also found it cute.  Settling down in his nest, Nimbus took another peek at Tycho's drawing then took out the head band he was making for the Dark Matter.  It was less ornate than those he made for Cirrus, but he had spent far more time crafting it.  Nimbus had picked out two dozen of the roundest nuts from the store room then had stained them a rich, dark red with berry juice.  The night before, he had finished piercing each one through, which left only the task of stringing the homemade beads onto a leather thong to tie around Tycho's "forehead."

_The red is the same shade as in his eye,_ Nimbus thought with pleasure as he began to string the beads.  _He'll look beautiful in it_.

\--

The next morning, Cirrus, Nimbus, and Tycho went out to play in the snow: no matter how old Cirrus got, the first snowfall never failed to enchant her.  Nimbus had to admit that it _was_ fun for a while, even though he was always glad to see the snow melt in the spring.

"I hated this stuff last year," Tycho commented as he watched Cirrus and Nimbus start to mold a snow-Kracko.  "I'm used to being cold, but it's so _wet_.  I didn't dry out until spring!"

"I guess it _is_ a lot more fun when you know you can go in to a warm fire whenever you want," Cirrus admitted.  After she mounded up snow on top of the snow-Kracko to represent its head appendages, Tycho darted up and began to shape its spikes.

They finished their creation just as Ebru called them in to lunch.  As Cirrus and Nimbus ate the soup she had made, Tycho kept peeking out the door to admire their work.

"Hey," he piped up after a few minutes, "here comes Cumulus.  It looks like he caught a rabbit."  Tycho drifted away from the door to sit by Nimbus when Cumulus came in; even though Cumulus had come to more or less accept him, Tycho still seemed nervous around him.

"Well, we'll have a good dinner tonight," Ebru greeted Cumulus with a smile.  Cumulus laid the dead rabbit-- at which Nimbus tried not to look-- on the hearth, then turned to his family with excitement.

"We'll have more than that, the next time we can get to the city!" he exclaimed.  "Wait until you see what I found!"  He wriggled out of the straps holding his atlatl's sheath on his back, then fumbled in the sheath until he pulled out something purple which he held out in one appendage.

"Ooh, what a pretty rock!" Cirrus cried.  "Where'd you get it?"

"I found it chasing that rabbit in the brush.  We'll be able to sell it for a fortune!"

Nimbus floated over to get a better look at Cumulus' find.  It _was_ pretty, with shifting iridescent shades of violet, green, and blue. . . but it wasn't a rock.  Instead, it looked more like a shard of diamond-shaped glass.

_No,_ Nimbus realized with a cold feeling that settled in his middle like a hailstone.  _It looks like a crystal._

He turned away quickly, his mind racing for a way to distract Tycho, but it was too late: the ever-curious Dark Matter was already darting over to Cumulus.

"Tycho--" Nimbus began.

"Whoooa," Tycho breathed as he hovered over Cumulus' appendage.  "It-- it. . . that. . . ."  He fell silent, his large eye going even wider.

"Cumulus, get it out of here!" Nimbus snapped desperately as he remembered Tycho's words:  "Maybe I won't _ever_ find any crystals, then I can stay forever."  _And if he does find a crystal, he'll have to go back to Zero Two. . . ._

"What's the matter with you?" Cumulus griped at Nimbus, even as Tycho began to edge away from the crystal with a frightened look in his eye.

"That's one of the crystal shards Zero Two wants, isn't it?" Nimbus asked the Dark Matter.  The other Krackos turned to Tycho in surprise; they had all heard his story about Zero Two, but judging from their expressions, they hadn't really believed it.

Tycho nodded slowly, then he closed his eye tightly, turning away.  "Don't let me look at it again!  Maybe he won't realize I-- nngh!"  At the painful, choked noise he made, Nimbus flew to him, pulling him close in his appendages.

"Tycho!  What's wrong?"

"Zero Two is calling me."  Tycho's voice sounded strained as he huddled against Nimbus.  "He saw the crystal through me, and. . . he wants it--!"

"It's _ours_ ," Cumulus growled, closing his appendage over the crystal.  "Is _that_ what you came here for-- to steal from us?"

"Cumulus--" Nimbus started angrily, but he was interrupted when Tycho began to shake.

"I-I'm sorry, I-- I can't--"  His words broke off as he suddenly jerked violently in Nimbus' grasp.  The Kracko was shaken off, and an instant later, Tycho dove at Cumulus.  The move was so unexpected, the Dark Matter was able to knock the shard from Cumulus' hold.  With a furious roar, Cumulus snatched at the crystal, but Tycho had already swept it up in a petal.  The Dark Matter spun to the center of the room, glaring at all of them with an eye that was no longer two-toned; now it was completely red.

_That Zero Two has possessed him!_ Nimbus realized.  _When Tycho tried to resist bringing him the shard, he just-- took over his body!  And now he's going to take Tycho away. . . ._

Nimbus knew that the consciousness inside the little Dark Matter was now Zero Two, not Tycho, but all he could think about was keeping his friend with him.  He flew at Tycho and tackled him, grasping him tightly with all ten of his appendages.  They rolled end over end in the air as Tycho tried to break free, but Nimbus refused to let him go.

Zero Two, though, was apparently just as stubborn.  When Tycho's strength proved to be too little to shake Nimbus off, Zero Two did what Nimbus had always feared: he called Tycho home.

Nimbus felt as if he were being pushed by an incredible icy wind.  It swept him up right along with Tycho, and in an instant, the Krackos' cozy home disappeared from around them.  Nimbus closed his eye tightly in sheer terror after he saw the darkness that suddenly surrounded them.  The only thing that felt real to him at all was Tycho's small body against him.  _And he's not even Tycho anymore_ , Nimbus thought with a grief he hadn't felt since his father's death.  _I'm all alone. . . ._

The terrible wind seemed to go on for hours, buffeting them effortlessly through the dark space.  Nimbus' appendages ached, but he called on every ounce of strength he had to hold Tycho: he was sure that if he let go, they would both be lost.  And then, finally, the force of the wind lessened, and their unchecked movement slowed.  Nimbus felt them spin slowly in the air, then they were completely still.  The air around them was still frigid, but at least it was no longer blowing.

The Kracko opened his eye to find himself still surrounded by darkness; however, now there was some color there too.  What looked like clouds of a deep red swirled past them, but jagged ribbons of sheer black circled around them as well.  Nimbus' aching appendages finally gave way, and he had to let go of Tycho, but nothing tried to sweep the Dark Matter away from him.  The crystal shard floated in front of Tycho, and his eye was closed.

"Tycho?" Nimbus stammered.  Tycho gave a hard shiver and opened his eye.  To Nimbus' immense relief, the golden color had returned to his iris.

"Nimbus. . . ?"  Tycho drifted over to him, wobbling in his flight, then buried his "face" in Nimbus' fluff.  "Oh, how did you follow me here?"

"I. . . I just held you."  Nimbus stroked his petals.  "I didn't want him to take you away from me!"

"Why?"  Tycho turned his eye up to look into Nimbus'.  "You saw what I did. . . I'm a monster, Nimbus.  He can take control of me whenever he wants."

"That makes him the monster, not you," Nimbus whispered as he kissed Tycho with his eyelashes.  "Tycho, I'll always want you, no matter what."

"Nimbus. . . ."  Tycho looked up at him again, then turned his eye away.  Nimbus followed his gaze to see Zero Two before them, where Nimbus was sure nothing had been a moment before.

Although Tycho's description of his master was accurate, Nimbus still felt unprepared for what he saw: Zero Two was truly the most monstrous thing Nimbus had ever seen.  He was far larger than the largest Kracko, so big that Tycho was positively dwarfed before him.  His spherical body was white with a single eye, but that eye was blood red all the way through except for a small black pupil; there was no white to it at all.  Two white wings tipped with red feathers extended from Zero Two's sides, and he lashed a long, spiny green tail beneath him.  Most ironic was the shining gold halo above the top of his bandaged head.  The halo was almost identical to the one Zakkiel was said to wear, as if Zero Two were determined to mock everything sacred to Nimbus.

The great red eye looked at neither Tycho nor Nimbus; it focused only on the shard of crystal.  With some invisible power, Zero Two drew the crystal toward him.  It floated to Zero Two's side then seemed to be absorbed into his surface.  Only then did Zero Two look at the two smaller creatures before him: first at Tycho, who had drawn away from Nimbus in nervous fear, then at the Kracko.  Looking up into that small pupil nearly swallowed by the red sclera, Nimbus felt a hatred stronger even than that which he held for the pink creature who had killed his father.

"You got your crystal-- why do you need Tycho too?" the Kracko yelled.

"Nimbus--!"  Tycho turned to stare at him, but Nimbus couldn't stop.

"You don't care anything about him!  You'd forgotten him until he found what you wanted, so let him come home!"  Nimbus felt his voice break, but he forced the next words out.  "You don't need him-- I do!"

Zero Two didn't speak, and Nimbus thought he was not going to react at all as the red eye continued to gaze down.  _He's not going to do anything!_ Nimbus thought.  _He's just going to take Tycho and leave me here-- and I'll never find my way home. . . ._

But then Zero Two blinked his eye.  The white lid lowered and raised again slowly, then a single tear welled and spilled from one corner, trailing down Zero Two's curved white surface.  Tycho had been right: the tear was as red as the eye from which it fell.

_He cries a lot_ , Tycho had said.  Perhaps Zero Two now wept at his own cruelty, for in the next instant, he sent Nimbus home alone.

This time the wind seemed to last only an instant, then Nimbus was back in his own home, surrounded by his stunned family.  Ebru was weeping, but her tears ceased as soon as he appeared, and she swept him up in her appendages.

"Nimbus!  Oh Zakkiel, we thought you were gone--!"

"M-ma, I'm okay."  Nimbus hugged her then pulled back gently to look around the room.  Cumulus and Cirrus were staring at him with growing relief, but Tycho was not there.

"What happened?" Cirrus asked in a small voice.  The look of happiness on her face had faded as Nimbus slumped to the floor in the middle of the room.

"That crystal. . . it was the kind Tycho's master wanted.  So he made Tycho bring it to him."  Nimbus began to shudder with emotion, even as he tried his hardest to control it.  "He. . . he sent me back here, but he kept Tycho.  Tycho--"  Nimbus choked then gasped out between sobs, "I love him, and that monster took him away from me!"  He bent over weeping as his family watched in silence.

\--

To be continued


	5. Chapter 5

Somehow Nimbus made it through the rest of the day in one piece.  His family let him cry himself out, then Ebru gently suggested that he to go his room to rest.  Nimbus refused; instead he wanted to stay busy in order to distract himself.  In fact, he went out with Cirrus to skin the rabbit Cumulus had caught, while Cumulus bathed to wash off the dirt from the hunt.

"You sure you want to help with this?" Cirrus asked as they went outside.  Nimbus was grateful that she went in back of the house, where he wouldn't have to see the snow-Kracko they had built with Tycho just that morning.

"Yes," Nimbus replied hoarsely.  And for the first time, the meat and even the entrails didn't sicken him.  Somehow, Zero Two's blood had made all other viscera seem inconsequential.

That evening, Nimbus stayed by the fire with his mother long after Cirrus and Cumulus had gone to their own rooms.  Finally though, he said good night and went to his nest, knowing that she needed more sleep than the rest of them.  In his room, Nimbus crawled into his nest and looked miserably down at the spot where Tycho usually slept.

_In just a few weeks, he had become such a part of my life,_ Nimbus thought.  _What am I going to do without him?_

Still trying to distract himself, Nimbus reached into a corner of his nest where he had secreted away the Yule presents he was making.  He had meant to work on a feathered tassel he was creating to decorate Cumulus' atlatl, but instead, his appendage closed over Tycho's headband.  Nimbus pulled it out and looked at it as he felt tears welling up in his eye again.  He blinked them back furiously and began to string the last few nuts on.

_I'll finish it for him, no matter what._

Nimbus had just tied the headband fast when he heard a knock on his door.  He tucked the headband under the fluff that lined his nest then called out, "It's open; come in."

He had expected it to be Ebru checking on him, but it was Cumulus who entered the room.  The larger Kracko looked around briefly, then his red eye focused on Nimbus, its expression unusually apprehensive.

"Um, Nimbus?  Can I talk to you for a minute?"  
  
"Yeah. . . ."  Nimbus floated up out of his nest to hover above the edge.

"I'm sorry," Cumulus blurted out.  "I never would have brought that crystal home if I had known."

Nimbus stared up at him, touched at the unexpected apology.  "Cumulus, it's not your fault.  It's not anyone's fault except for-- for Z-zero Two."  He could hardly say the name.

"But I should have been nicer to him, too," Cumulus sighed, "for your sake, if nothing else."  He floated over to Nimbus and reached out an appendage to pat him.  "I wish. . . there was something I could do."

"Thanks," Nimbus mumbled.  He hesitated then reached out to hug his brother tightly, something he hadn't done in years.  Cumulus gave a little surprised rumble but then hugged him back.

"You gonna be okay tonight?" Cumulus asked after they had separated awkwardly.

"Yeah.  I'll be okay."  Nimbus managed a little smile with his eye although he didn't feel it inside.  "Now get out of here; I have to work on your Yule present."

"Okay."  Cumulus smiled back and turned to go.  "See you in the morning."

\--

Somehow, life went on.  Nimbus had never really minded the hard work that his family's existence demanded, but now he actually appreciated it.  Even in winter, without any gathering or planting, Nimbus stayed busy enough getting wood for the fire, sweeping the snow from around the doors, and other small tasks.  Those, along with finishing his family's Yule gifts, kept him at least somewhat distracted from his sorrow.

However, Nimbus avoided the one activity he had once enjoyed most-- studying his plant journal.  He couldn't bring himself to open it because he might see Tycho's shaky petal-writing or the drawing the Dark Matter had made for him.  Instead, the journal stayed closed, lying where Nimbus had left it the night before Tycho was taken.

Two nights before Yule, the family sat together around the fire as a bitter wind whistled around the house.  All of the Krackos' gifts were finished, although they wouldn't be brought out until Yule morning.  Some Kracko families wrapped their Yule gifts, as Ebru's had when she was a girl.  Now though, the family didn't have resources to waste on paper that would just be thrown away.  Each family member had also made a small gift for the angel Zakkiel; these would be placed in the fire on Yule's Eve as a sign of their thankfulness to him.

_What do I have to thank him for?_ Nimbus thought bitterly, then he immediately regretted it.  _No, I should be grateful.  We've had a good harvest and another year together. . . and I should thank him that I had Tycho at all, even for a little while._   He closed his eye and prayed, _Zakkiel, forgive me for my ingratitude.  Thank you for letting me be with Tycho, and please take care of him, wherever he is.  Please let him be okay._

Nimbus felt better for the rest of the evening, managing to enjoy the time spent with his family.  Ebru had used a few of the precious apples in their storage-- gathered by Nimbus on a long trip to visit Whispy Woods-- to make cider as a treat before the day of fasting that marked every Yule's Eve.  As they sipped at it, Ebru told them a story about a Yule party she had attended as an adolescent.  Cirrus listened wide-eyed, and Nimbus could tell that she was daydreaming about the exciting life her mother had once led in the city.  Cumulus, in contrast, pretended not to be listening, but his eye did brighten when Ebru described all the beautiful Kracko debutantes who had been in attendance.

For his part, Nimbus imagined what it would be like to take Tycho out to an event like that.  In Nimbus' imagination, no one shunned the Dark Matter or the impoverished Kracko, and he and Tycho could go wherever they pleased-- even to the most lavish party in the city.  Tycho wore the headband Nimbus had made for him, and they floated about in the air, dancing together.

The end of Ebru's story was interrupted by a thud on the front door.  Cirrus scowled at the disruption, which had made Ebru break off and turn a worried eye to the door.

"Go on, Ma!" Cirrus urged.  "It's just the wind."

"The wind doesn't go 'thud,'" Cumulus rumbled, giving Cirrus a little thump with an appendage as he got up.  Another, softer noise sounded before he made it to the door, and Ebru drew up between Cirrus and Nimbus, resting a protective appendage on each of them.  Cumulus floated up to the viewing hatch and opened it to peer out.  A gust of icy wind blew in, piercing the heavy warmth in the room.

"It's too dark to see anything," Cumulus reported, just as a whole tattoo of thumps rattled the door.  Glaring, Cumulus shouted, "Who's there?" but the wind whipped the sound of his voice away.

"I'll have to light up."  Cumulus stuck one of his spikes out through the hatch and shot off a small bolt of lightning from it as he peered into the dark.  Nimbus saw his brother's eye widen, and Cumulus quickly drew himself back in and shut the hatch.

"What is it?" asked Ebru in a timorous voice.

"It's a Dark Matter."

Nimbus felt like the world had stopped turning.  He floated up in the air so fast, he nearly hurtled into the low ceiling.  "Is it Tycho--?"

"I couldn't tell."  Cumulus moved in front of the door as Nimbus darted over to it.  "Nimbus, it could be another one.  That Zero Two could have sent them after you--"

"But it could be Tycho!" Nimbus exploded.  "Let him in!"  He tried to shove his larger brother out of the way, then finally resorted to forcing his way past Cumulus' appendages to unlatch the door.

"Nimbus, be careful!" cried Ebru from where she huddled with Cirrus, but Nimbus hardly heard her as he tugged at the door.  Cumulus finally relented and moved out of the way, although his spikes began to spark with electricity as he readied an attack.

When Nimbus got the door open and looked down, he saw a small black lump sitting in a drift of snow, dimly illuminated by the fire's light.  The Dark Matter's large eye blinked up at him tiredly.

"Nimbus?" he said in a small, disbelieving voice.

"Tycho!" Nimbus gasped.  How Tycho could have gotten there was beyond him, but Nimbus didn't care.  He swept up the little cold body in his appendages and pulled Tycho inside, covering his face with eye-kisses.  Cumulus was left to shut the door as Nimbus took Tycho over to the fire, trying to warm him.

"Nimbus," the Dark Matter mumbled, huddling against Nimbus as if trying to burrow into his fluff.  "I'm so tired. . . .  I flew all the way from. . . from. . . ."

"Shh, just rest."  Nimbus nearly choked with emotion, and a tear welled up in his eye and splashed on one of Tycho's petals.  "You can tell me tomorrow."

"Praise Zakkiel," Ebru murmured.  When Nimbus was finally able to take his eye off of Tycho, he saw that she was near tears herself.  _She really cares for him too,_ Nimbus realized.

Tycho's eye drooped shut as Nimbus held him, rubbing him with his appendages until the Dark Matter was warm.  By then, Tycho seemed to be sleeping; all his petals were relaxed, and he lay peacefully against Nimbus' side.

"Why don't you take him to bed?" Ebru suggested with a tender smile in her eye.  "He'll sleep better nesting with you."  Nimbus felt himself flush to hear his mother speak of anyone nesting with him, even completely chastely.  He nodded awkwardly and scooped up Tycho in his appendages.

"Don't stay up all night fawning over him either," Cirrus teased.  "You're going to need your energy to fast tomorrow."

"Mind your own business," Nimbus mumbled with embarrassment as he took Tycho to his room.

Despite Cirrus' admonition, Nimbus did stay awake for a while, stroking Tycho's petals in the darkness where the Dark Matter lay cushioned in Nimbus' fluff.  Now that his emotions had calmed, Nimbus had time to wonder just how Tycho had escaped Zero Two.  Tycho seemed to be unharmed, and he gave no sign of feeling pain as he slept.

_Oh well, he can tell me about it later._   Nimbus pulled the blanket up around them and held Tycho close.  He had almost drifted into a doze when he felt Tycho's petals move.  Afraid that something had disturbed the Dark Matter, Nimbus came instantly awake, and he curled his appendages around Tycho more tightly.

"Nimbus?" Tycho asked sleepily.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to be sure you were really here."  Tycho nestled closer to him, stroking his fluff with a petal.  "I thought I'd never make it back to you."

Nimbus couldn't hold back his curiosity.  "Tycho, how?  How did you get away from him?"

"Oh. . . he let me go."  Tycho gave a sleepy giggle at the surprised sound Nimbus made.  "I'll tell you the whole story tomorrow, but. . . I'm free now.  He can't take me away again."

"Good," Nimbus managed to whisper.  He folded his appendage over Tycho's petal and squeezed it gently.  "Um. . . Tycho?"

"Mmn.  What?" the Dark Matter mumbled.

"I want you to stay with me forever."  Nimbus closed his eye nervously then blurted out, "I love you."

"I love you too, Nimbus," Tycho answered immediately.  Nimbus felt the Dark Matter snuggle in closer.  "I'll stay with you, I promise."

He didn't speak again, and Nimbus let him go back to sleep.  The Kracko was filled with a warmth that had nothing to do with his blanket, and he slept peacefully for the first time that winter.

\--

To be continued


	6. Chapter 6

Nimbus rose early the next morning, as was customary for Yule's Eve.  This time, Tycho got up with him and watched as Nimbus combed out his fluff.  The Krackos wore no adornments on this solemn day, so instead of dressing, Nimbus went on into the main room with Tycho.  Ebru was already there as usual, and she handed Nimbus a cup of water; water would be the Krackos' only sustenance until midnight.

"Why do you fast on Yule's Eve?" Tycho asked, peeking into the cup as if to ascertain that it was really only water.

"It's symbolic," Ebru explained.  "We fast to purify ourselves and to make ourselves worthy of Zakkiel's blessings.  Then at midnight we break the fast so we can spend Yule in celebration and thanksgiving."

"We Dark Matter never did anything like that."  Tycho floated down to rest beside Nimbus on his floor mat.  "We don't get to celebrate anything either, though."  
  
"Don't you have any kind of religion?" Nimbus asked him as he drank his water.

"Well, Zero Two made us."  Tycho shrugged his petals.  "But he never told us to worship him, just to obey him.  It's not really the same thing."  He gave a little sigh and leaned back against Nimbus.  "And he's never happy anyway, so I don't think he would care if we _did_ have a celebration for him."

Nimbus considered this.  "Why isn't he ever happy?"

Tycho turned to look up at him, blinking his eye.  "He can't feel any good emotions, so he can't ever be happy or. . . or love.  He only feels sad, and that's why he cries so much."

"Oh."  Nimbus, in spite of himself and much against his will, felt a little sorry for Zero Two.  _But that doesn't excuse making other people unhappy!_ he decided.  He put an appendage around Tycho and hugged him close.  "Now will you tell me how you got away from him?"

"Better wait for your brother and sister," Ebru chuckled, "or else he'll have to tell the whole story again."

To Nimbus' relief, he didn't have to wait long; Cumulus and a sleepy-eyed Cirrus soon arrived.  Once they all were seated on their mats with their water, Ebru asked Tycho to tell them what had happened.

\--

_When Nimbus disappeared, Tycho made a sharp wail of unhappiness, vibrating his petals frantically.  Zero Two's tear fell from his face and disappeared into the shifting clouds of Dark Star.  Tycho would have almost imagined that Zero Two sympathized with him-- except that he knew his master couldn't feel sympathy.  Tycho assumed he could feel guilt though, and maybe that was why he cried._

_Tycho was terrified of Zero Two.  He had never seen any Dark Matter punished by the great eye, but his imagination of what Zero Two **could** do was more than enough to frighten him.  If Zero Two could take control of the Dark Matter's bodies from afar, he could probably destroy them just as easily._

_And yet, despite his fear, Tycho felt for the first time angry towards his master._

_"Wh-why **do** you need me?" he asked in a tremulous voice.  "I'm not a very good Dark Matter-- I only found one crystal shard in all the time I've been gone.  Why can't I stay with Nimbus?"_

_Zero Two looked down at him with the huge red eye, expressionless as he almost always was.  "Why do you **want** to stay with the Kracko?" he asked.  His voice sounded in Tycho's mind rather than audibly.  There, it had no tone to it at all, and Tycho couldn't have explained what it sounded like.  It just. . . **was**._

_"I. . . I love him."  Tycho looked up at his master to see if he got any reaction at all.  He thought that Zero Two's eye **did** widen slightly as if in surprise.  He didn't seem angry, though, so Tycho ventured to ask, "How can I feel something like love?  Why can I have good feelings if you can't?"_

_He thought Zero Two wouldn't answer, but the great eye spoke again after a long pause.  "I do not know.  I intended all of you to be a part of me, but then you began to name yourselves, and I knew you had ceased to belong to me entirely. . . ."  He gave a beat of his vast wings as if to shrug.  "I wanted everyone in the cosmos to feel like me, but even my own children betray me."  They were strange words voiced in his indifferent, toneless speech._   
_  
"But we **haven't** betrayed you!" Tycho protested.  "Just because we feel things--"_

_" **You** tried to," Zero Two interrupted.  "You did not want to bring me the crystal shard."_

_"Oh."  Tycho looked down.  "That was because I wanted to stay with Nimbus.  I would have brought it to you right away if I'd thought you'd let me go back to him!"_

_"There was another like you, before you were created," Zero Two said.  "He made friends, and I allowed him to stay with them."  He fluttered his wings; the wind they made on Tycho's face felt like a sigh.  "And ultimately, he helped them defeat me.  When I recovered, I vowed that I would never give your kind free will again.  But somehow. . . you've taken it all the same."_

_" **I** don't want to hurt you.  I just want to be with Nimbus!" pleaded Tycho.  "I know you can't understand how it feels, but. . . he makes me happy."  He shivered but then worked up his nerve and floated over beside Zero Two.  Tycho was only about the size of Zero Two's pupil, but he went on bravely.  "Have you ever **tried** to be happy?  Just to see what it feels like?"_

_Zero Two's eyelid lowered to cover half of his red eye as he looked at Tycho.  When he didn't reply, Tycho tried again._

_"Love, it. . . it makes you feel warm on the inside, like. . . ."  Tycho paused, trying to think of something to which Zero Two could relate.  "Like having a little sun inside you.  And it gets all tingly around your eye.  And me, my petals sort of tingle too, but you don't have petals."_

_Zero Two half-turned away from him, his feathers bristling a bit.  His attitude actually encouraged Tycho, because it meant that he was reaching his master's emotions, negative though they were.  Tycho moved closer to Zero Two and went on eagerly._

_"Just looking at Nimbus makes me have that warm feeling.  And when I touch him-- he's so soft!  Like. . . like your feathers feel, probably.  Then when he holds me, it feels like--"_

_" **Silence!** " Zero Two roared-- roared **aloud** , not just in Tycho's mind.  He pulled back from Tycho and turned his back on the Dark Matter completely.  Zero Two's wings hitched a little, and a shudder moved through his round body.  "Leave me.  If this is what you've become, you have no place in Dark Star.  I will not call you back since you obviously serve a new master now."_

_Tycho blinked up at Zero Two's back in amazement.  Despite his pleading, he had never really expected Zero Two to set him free.  And yet. . . he felt sorry for his former master._

_"I. . . I hope you **can** feel like this someday," he told Zero Two.  "It's a lot better to try to feel happy, than to try to make everyone else feel bad."_

_Zero Two's body shuddered again, then he rounded in Tycho in fury, screaming aloud, " **Enough!** "  As he spun, Zero Two clouted Tycho with his giant wing.  One entire side of Tycho's body stung from the force of Zero Two's feathers smacking it, and the hit sent Tycho spinning.  Just before Dark Star disappeared from around him in a dizzy tornado, Tycho realized that bloody tears were streaming from Zero Two's eye._

_\--_

"He sent me back to Pop Star," Tycho told the Krackos, "but I was far away from here.  I landed where I was when I first came to Pop Star years ago-- it's north of the place where I met you, Nimbus, and it took me all this time to find my way back to you."

"So Zero Two really let you go that easily?" Cumulus asked.  His voice was gruff and his expression skeptical; Nimbus realized a bit sadly that his brother still did not fully trust Tycho.

"I. . . I think I hurt him."  Tycho looked down with a sad expression in his eye.  "I never wanted to, even-- even after he separated Nimbus and me.  I only wanted to help Zero Two, but. . . it hurt him just to _hear_ about love."

"Maybe he was jealous," Cirrus suggested.  "Or sad that he can't feel good things."  She sighed thoughtfully.  "I kind of feel sorry for him too.  I can't even imagine what it must be like to not love anyone or to _never_ be happy."

Nimbus was not so forgiving as his sister.  Instead, he imagined with anger how it must have hurt Tycho to be slapped with that giant wing.  Nimbus put his own soft appendage around Tycho again and pulled him a little closer.

"We're glad you've returned, Tycho," Ebru said with a gentle smile in her eye.  She got up from her mat and floated over to pet Tycho's petals with a mauve appendage.  "I have to admit, I got quite used to having you around.  I missed you very much."

"I missed you too, Ebru."  Tycho looked up at her with a eye-smile of his own.  "I missed all of you."  Then he turned and snuggled closer to Nimbus, whispering, "But I missed _you_ the most.  If Zero Two hadn't driven me back to Pop Star, I would have flown all the way here myself!"

As solemn as Yule's Eve was meant to be, Nimbus felt an irrepressible joy that shown through as they fasted, recited prayers, and sang hymns to Zakkiel that day.  At sundown, they drank more water, then Ebru read from the holy Book of Olga, the most ornate and valuable volume she owned.  It was not a strictly Kracko work, for it told the story of Olga, a Waddle-Doo who was favored by the Creator.  The Creator showed her the history of Pop Star's origins, including the many angels who educated Pop Star's first inhabitants.  Ebru read the parts about Zakkiel, portrayed in the book as a Kracko angel who gave Pop Star the knowledge of clouds and storms.

Tycho listened to the reading with interest, even though he knew his own creator perfectly well-- and even though Zero Two was nothing like the capricious, beautiful, violet-robed Creator of Pop Star.  As for Nimbus, he listened with more intent than usual, for his prayer to Zakkiel had been answered by Tycho's return.

Near midnight, Ebru began to brew tea and brought out nuts and dried fruit to break their fast.  Then, as midnight struck, the Krackos dropped their gifts to Zakkiel into the flames of their fire.  Cirrus had braided a headband out of dyed grasses; Cumulus had made a spike-cuff out of leather from the skin of one of his kills; and Ebru had carved a fluff-comb out of a smooth piece of wood.  Nimbus' gift was a dangling decoration to be hung on a Kracko's spike, made from some of the dyed nuts strung on dried grass.

"Why do you burn the gifts?" Tycho asked as watched the items turn to ashes in the fire.  "They were so pretty."

"The fire turns them to sparks," Cirrus answered fervently, "then the chimney carries the sparks up to Zakkiel in the upper world."

"What does he do with sparks?" Tycho persisted.  "Does he turn them back into presents so he can wear them?"

"We'll let you know if we ever find out," said Cumulus.  Nimbus could hear a suppressed chuckle in his voice; Cumulus had always been less of a believer than his mother and sister.

After the gifts were burned up, the Krackos ate their midnight meal.  Nimbus looked down at Tycho, suddenly reminded that Tycho hadn't had any kind of negative energy to eat since his arrival.

"What about you?  Aren't you hungry?"

"Oh. . . no, I've had enough to last me for a while."  Tycho looked a little embarrassed, then he whispered to Nimbus, "I. . . I feel bad about it, but I could feel your energy for a long way away when I got here last night.  So you fed me, Nimbus."

"Don't feel bad," Nimbus reassured him, patting his petals with an appendage.  "I'm glad that. . . that you could get your energy from me."

Tycho paused as he pressed close to Nimbus' side, then he murmured, "You were really sad, weren't you?  I could feel so much darkness. . . ."

"Yes," Nimbus whispered.  "I was very sad without you."

"Then I really will have to stay with you forever!" Tycho declared more cheerfully.  "The next time I eat, I don't want it to be from you, okay?"

Nimbus chuckled and nuzzled his petals.  "Okay."

\--

The family went to bed soon after their small meal.  Nimbus extinguished his lamp once he and Tycho were settled in their nest, and the Kracko laughed softly to himself as he tucked the blanket around them.

"I remember Yule's Eve when I was younger.  Cirrus and I never wanted to go to bed after we gave gifts to Zakkiel.  We wanted _our_ gifts then too!"

"You get them in the morning, right?" Tycho asked.

"Yes, after we have breakfast."  Nimbus closed his eye happily as he remembered the excitement of Yule during his childhood.  "When we were kids, Ma and Pa let us have them _before_ breakfast, because otherwise, we were too wound up to eat!"

"It sounds like so much fun!"  Tycho pressed close to his side.  "I'm glad I get to have Yule too now."

"You'll get to have _all_ of it, I promise," swore Nimbus, glad that he had finished Tycho's gift after all.  He held the little Dark Matter in his appendages and gave him a hug.  "You're part of our family now."

"Mmn."  Tycho shifted a little, then Nimbus felt the Dark Matter's eyelid brushing the fluff on his face.  "I've never had a family before," Tycho murmured as he fluttered his eyelid against Nimbus.  "Thank you."

Nimbus thought that Tycho would settle down and go to sleep, but he kept moving his eyelid against the Kracko's face.  At first, the gesture only made the warmth inside Nimbus grow, but as Tycho pressed closer against him, his actions became what would have been passionate kisses coming from another Kracko.  Nimbus' body tensed up with growing excitement.

"T-tycho," he finally mumbled.  "You. . . ."

"What?"  Tycho paused, leaning his face against Nimbus.  "What's wrong?"  
  
"Oh, it's just that. . . um. . . ."  Flustered, Nimbus managed to stammer, "When you do that with your eye. . . to a Kracko, that's like a kiss."

"I know."

Nimbus felt his cheeks flare with heat under his fluff.  "You _know_?  How--?"

"Soon after I got here, Ebru closed her eye against my cheek like that.  I asked her what it meant, and she said she was giving me a good night kiss," Tycho said, perfectly innocent.  "And I liked it when you kept doing it to me, so. . . I thought I'd do it to you too."

"You. . . you knew what it meant all along?" Nimbus gasped.  "You wicked little Dark Matter!"  When he at last overcame his embarrassment, Nimbus kissed Tycho back, brushing the Dark Matter's "cheek."

"You're _more_ wicked, kissing me when you thought I didn't know what it meant!"  Tycho giggled and burrowed deeper into Nimbus' fluff, kissing him over and over.

"Tycho, that feels so nice," Nimbus breathed as he returned the kisses.

"I'm glad."  Tycho clung to his fluff with his petals.  "You made me feel good too.  I-I've never had anyone kiss me like this before!"

"Mmn. . . neither have I."  Nimbus hugged him tightly with a shy laugh.

"Really?  Oh, Nimbus. . . ."  With a happy little cry, Tycho pleaded,  "Tell me that I'll _always_ be the only one you kiss!"

"You will be," Nimbus promised.  "Tycho, I love you-- _only_ you."

"And you're the only one _I_ love!"  Tycho curled up against him with a contented sigh.  "You're the best present I could have gotten for my first Yule."

Nimbus closed his eye happily.  "Having you back is the best gift of all."

\--

On Yule morning, Cirrus was the first member of the family awake-- and it was, as Ebru always joked, the only day of the year _that_ happened.  By the time Nimbus and Tycho came into the main room, Cirrus had already brewed tea and was cooking porridge with grain harvested from the garden.

"I thought you'd never get up!" she complained.  "Aren't Ma and Cumulus awake yet?"

"Not yet," Nimbus laughed.  He settled down on his mat with Tycho, who immediately leaned against Nimbus affectionately.  Cirrus eyed them with a giggle, causing Nimbus to glower at her.  "What's so funny?"

"To think you used to tease me for daydreaming about romance!  _Now_ who's the hopeless romantic?"

"Wh-who says we're being romantic?" Nimbus spluttered.

Tycho looked up at him, blinking.  "Aren't we?"  He leaned up and kissed Nimbus' cheek sweetly, making Nimbus blush-- and Cirrus laugh harder.

"You two are in on this together, aren't you?" mumbled Nimbus (not that he minded the kiss in the least).

"Maybe," was all Cirrus replied.

Ebru and Cumulus finally joined them, and the Krackos settled down to a leisurely breakfast-- although Cirrus soon began to fidget at the promise of impending presents.  Although Nimbus was excited about giving his family, and especially Tycho, their presents, he was still able to appreciate the porridge, flavored with honey bought in the city.

After breakfast, each Kracko went to her or his room to collect the Yule presents.  Nimbus told Tycho to stay in the main room, smiling to himself at the Dark Matter's bewilderment.  He gathered up the presents he'd made and concealed them in his blanket before returning.

"So who gets to go first?" Cirrus asked eagerly when they were reassembled.

"Cirrus!" Ebru scolded.  "Don't be so greedy."  To Nimbus' surprise, Cirrus and Tycho exchanged mischievous looks.

"I don't want to get my presents first.  I just think that Tycho should give his out now, since it's his first Yule!" Cirrus declared.

"Tycho made gifts?" Nimbus blurted out, then he turned to Tycho in confusion.  "When?"

"When you were so jealous because he came to my room in the evenings!" Cirrus crowed.  "Here, Tycho, I brought yours out in my extra blanket."  She placed a bundle in front of Tycho, who looked proud and a little shy at the same time.

"They aren't the best presents, since Cirrus had to teach me how to make everything," the little Dark Matter mumbled, "but I tried."  He stuck a petal into the bundle and pulled out a somewhat messily braided grass headband.  "Ebru, this is for you."  Tycho floated over to Ebru and carefully placed it around her top appendages.

"Oh Tycho, it's beautiful!  Thank you, darling."  Ebru leaned over and gave him a kiss on his "cheek."

"Y-you're welcome," Tycho stammered, clearly pleased.  "Uh, and Cumulus. . . ."  His voice fell to a mumble again.  "I know you don't like me much, but. . . you let me stay here anyway.   I wanted to thank you for that."  He produced a new arrowhead shaped from some of the flaky stone that could be found near the house.  He was apparently more adept at chipping stone than at braiding, for the arrowhead looked almost as good as the ones Cumulus made himself.

"Oh, I. . . thanks," Cumulus rumbled, clearly both surprised and a little ashamed, as he took it in his appendage.  "Tycho, I. . . I do like you, I promise.  And I'm sorry I don't always show it.  But if you make Nimbus happy, then _I'm_ happy to have you here."

"Thank you," Tycho whispered, looking up at him shyly before going back to his bundle.  "And Nimbus. . . this one is yours."  He scooped up something in his petals and brought it to Nimbus.  "Cirrus helped me by giving me the cloth, but I dyed and decorated it all by myself!"  In front of Nimbus, Tycho placed a strip of woven fabric dyed in several bright colors.  Nimbus' name was painted on it in Tycho's distinctive writing.

"You made this for me?" Nimbus murmured.  "I love it, Tycho."

"Well, your fluff is so pretty, I. . . I thought you could tie it in there somewhere.  And then when you wore it, you'd think about me."  Tycho looked up at him lovingly as he picked up the ribbon and began to tie it to Nimbus' side, near one of his spikes.

_I always think about you anyway,_ Nimbus thought, smiling down at his lover.  Aloud, he said, "Thank you, Tycho.  I'll wear it every day."  He hugged Tycho close in his appendages and even kissed one of his petals despite being in the presence of the rest of his family.

Tycho was blushing a little as he turned back to Cirrus.  "I'm sorry I don't have anything for you, Cirrus, but you would have seen me making it anyway!  I'll make you a present and give it to you later."

"Oh, it's all right."  Cirrus winked at him.  "Seeing you make Nimbus smile like that is enough of a present for me!"

"Um, I have something for you too, Tycho."  Nimbus looked over to Ebru.  "Is it okay if I go ahead and give my gifts out now?"  When Ebru nodded, Nimbus brought out the red beaded headband he had made.

Tycho's eye widened.  "This is for me?  Nimbus, I-I didn't think you'd give me anything. . . ."

"Of course I'm going to give you something!" Nimbus chuckled.  "I told you, you'd get to experience all of Yule!"  More softly, he went on, "I made it the color of the red part of your eye.  I. . . I thought you could wear it around the petals on top. . . and then _you'll_ think about _me_."  To his surprise, tears welled up in Tycho's large eye-- tears of clear water, not blood.

"Oh, Nimbus!"  Disregarding their audience of Krackos, Tycho threw himself against Nimbus, kissing him over and over.  "Th-thank you, thank you so much!  No one's ever given me anything before!"

Nimbus flushed but picked up the headband and carefully arranged it around Tycho's upper petals.  "There!  It fits perfectly!"

Tycho blinked back his tears and looked up at him with a smile.  "How do I look?"

"Y-you. . . you look beautiful," Nimbus whispered.

The family exchanged the rest of their presents throughout the morning.  Cumulus gave Nimbus a leather spike-cuff similar to the one he had made for Zakkiel, while Cirrus and Ebru's gifts were intended for both Nimbus and Tycho.  Ebru had somehow found the time to make a second blanket for their nest, and Cirrus had crafted a small, Tycho-sized grass mat so that they wouldn't have to crowd onto one at meal times.

As was fitting after the solemn Yule's Eve fasting, the day of Yule was a joyous occasion.  The Kracko children-- even Cumulus-- played in the snow with Tycho and built another snow-Kracko. . . then they built a snow-Dark Matter too.  Late in the afternoon, they all helped Ebru prepare dinner with some of the best food they had stored, and they spent the evening telling stories in turns.

Since Yule was held on the winter solstice, it was the shortest day of the year; it also meant that the days would now begin to get longer.  Thus, it was a perfect time to begin to talk of plans for spring.

"We always make a trip to the city when the snow has begun to melt," Cirrus told Tycho with excitement.  "You'll _love_ the city-- there's so much to see there!"

"But won't everyone there be scared of me?" Tycho asked in a small voice.

"We'll find a way to disguise you," Ebru promised.

"Yeah, we could wrap you up in a blanket and say that you're my baby!" giggled Cirrus.  Tycho flushed indignantly.

"I'm not a baby!" he retorted.

Nimbus chuckled and leaned over to Tycho's new mat to pat him with an appendage.  "Okay, don't worry-- we'll figure _something_ out."

"Okay."  Tycho huffed a bit but was apparently satisfied.  "What do you do in the city?"

"First we sell some of the things we've made," explained Ebru.  "Then we use the money to buy supplies we can't make ourselves."

"Oh but there's plenty more to do than just that!" Cirrus protested.  "We also go to the library, where there are all kinds of books in cloud script.  And there's a park, and lots of people to look at!"

"By 'people,' she means 'boy Krackos,'" put in Cumulus.

"Like you don't look at girl Krackos!" his sister retorted.

As a child, Nimbus had always been a little sad when Yule was over and it was time for bed.  Now, though, it seemed like every day in the foreseeable future would be another holiday, since Tycho would be with him.  They settled down in their nest with the new blanket over them.  Tycho had insisted on wearing his headband to bed, so Nimbus reciprocated by leaving the ribbon Tycho had made tied in his fluff.  They kissed and nuzzled each other for a while, but Tycho soon slumped against Nimbus drowsily.

"Nimbus?" he mumbled, already half-asleep.  "Do you think Zakkiel would mind if I prayed to him?  Even though I'm not a Kracko?"

Nimbus blinked in the darkness at the odd question.  "No, I don't think he would mind."  If anyone minded, he decided, it would be Zero Two. . . but then, having set Tycho free, Zero Two would never know.

"Good.  I want to thank him for you."

Nimbus tightened his appendages around Tycho and kissed him softly.  "Then I'll thank him too. . . for bringing you back to me."

"Mmn."  Tycho's petals curled in Nimbus' fluff, then the little Dark Matter was still except for an occasional twitch in his sleep.  Nimbus closed his eye against Tycho's forehead and thanked Zakkiel so profusely, he was sound asleep before his prayer was finished.

\--

The End


End file.
